Muddling Through while Environmental Regulatory Capacity Evolves: What Role for Voluntary Agreements?

The city of León, Guanajuato, is Mexico’s leather goods capital and a notorious environmental hotspot. Over the past two decades, four high-profile voluntary agreements aimed at controlling pollution from León’s tanneries have yielded few concrete results. To understand why, this paper reconstructs the history of these initiatives, along with that of local environmental regulatory capacity. Juxtaposing these two timelines suggests that the voluntary pollution control agreements were both motivated by—and undermined by—gaps in the legal, institutional, physical, and civic infrastructures needed to make regulation effective. Our analysis offers a concrete definition of environmental regulatory capacity, provides insights into how it evolves, and demonstrates its importance. Moreover, it sheds light on the question of whether voluntary environmental agreements—an increasingly popular regulatory tool—are likely to be effective in developing countries.environment, voluntary agreement, regulatory capacity, Latin America, Mexico

Cameron’s post-election reshuffle: a historical perspective

Following his return to Downing Street at the head of a majority Conservative government, Cameron had no choice but to conduct another wide-ranging cabinet reshuffle. Elections represent obvious punctuations in government, and post-election reshuffles are a chance to inject fresh blood and new energy into Whitehall. In this article, Nicholas Allen looks at reshuffles from a historical perspective

The Rennard scandal highlights the reluctance of politicians to address murmurs of wrongdoing and the tendency for tribalism to affect their responses

Unlike most sex scandals, the allegations concerning Lord Rennard also raises questions about the integrity of our politics, in particular how politicians respond to rumours of impropriety and alleged abuses of authority, writes Nicholas Allen

If the debates do not go ahead, it will be the fault of self-interest on the part of the main parties and the broadcasters

Whether there will be debates this year in advance of the 2015 General Election is open to question, with partisan and corporate self-interest threatening to overwhelm the process by which inclusion in the debate is governed. Nicholas Allen argues that this brinksmanship threatens the debates taking place not only in a satisfactory manner, but going ahead at all

An Analysis Of Drop Outs And Unusual Behavior From Primary And Secondary Radar

An evaluation of the radar systems in the Red River Valley of North Dakota (ND) and its surrounding areas for its ability to provide Detect and Avoid (DAA) capabilities for manned and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) was performed. Additionally, the data was analyzed for its feasibility to be used in autonomous Air Traffic Control (ATC) systems in the future. With the almost certain increase in airspace congestion over the coming years, the need for a robust and accurate radar system is crucial. This study focused on the Airport Surveillance Radar (ASR) at Fargo, ND and the Air Route Surveillance Radar at Finley, ND. Each of these radar sites contain primary and secondary radars. It was found that both locations exhibit data anomalies, such as: drop outs, altitude outliers, prolonged altitude failures, repeated data, and multiple aircraft with the same identification number (ID) number. Four weeks of data provided by Harris Corporation throughout the year were analyzed using a MATLAB algorithm developed to identify the data anomalies. The results showed Fargo intercepts on average 450 aircraft, while Finley intercepts 1274 aircraft. Of these aircraft an average of 34% experienced drop outs at Fargo and 69% at Finley. With the average drop out at Fargo of 23.58 seconds and 42.45 seconds at Finley, and several lasting more than several minutes, it shows these data anomalies can occur for an extended period of time. Between 1% to 26% aircraft experienced the other data anomalies, depending on the type of data anomaly and location. When aircraft were near airports or the edge of the effective radar radius, the largest proportion of data anomalies were experienced. It was also discovered that drop outs, altitude outliers, andrepeated data are radar induced errors, while prolonged altitude failures and multiple aircraft with the same ID are transponder induced errors. The risk associated with each data anomaly, by looking at the severity of the event and the occurrence was also produced. The findings from this report will provide meaningful data and likely influence the development of UAS DAA logic and the logic behind autonomous ATC systems

Cation Adsorption and Exchange at the Mineral-Water Interface: The Role of Hydration and Hydrolysis

This work examines the interactions of cations with two mineral surfaces, quartz (SiO2) and corundum (Al2O3) to gain mechanistic insights into those interactions through the use of flow microcalorimetry, quartz crystal microbalance measurements, and density functional theory. The adsorption and exchange of alkali and alkaline earth cations onto the quartz mineral surface was conducted at pH 4.0 and 8.0. The heats of adsorption and exchange were found to increase along the lyotropic series, Li+ \u3c Na+ \u3c K+ \u3c Rb+ \u3c Cs+ and Mg2+ \u3c Ca2+ \u3c Sr2+ \u3c Ba2+, and were strongly correlated with the cation bulk hydration enthalpy. The adsorption of Al3+, Cr3+, and Mn2+ was investigated on the quartz and corundum mineral surfaces at pH 3.8. Adsorption behavior was seen for all cations on both surfaces, with the exception of Mn2+ on quartz. The adsorption of these cations was a function of both cation hydration and hydrolysis

Gamma-radiation exposure alters the cardiovascular extracellular matrix.

Ionizing radiation has been associated with various cardiovascular complications; however, the associated molecular changes from radiation exposure still remain largely uncharacterized. Alterations to the cardiovascular tissue microenvironment, i.e. the extracellular matrix (ECM), directly affect the function of integrated vascular cells, including cell adhesion, potential to form vessels, and endothelial permeability, which can promote cardiovascular pathologies. The ECM is constantly remodeled in response to stimuli, such as TGF-β1, which leads to excessive ECM accumulation. We hypothesize that radiation exposure will alter the cardiovascular ECM. Human Cardiac Fibroblasts (HCFs) were utilized to produce ECM as an in vitro model to study changes in cardiovascular ECM from exposure to 0 and 1 Gy of γ-radiation. We verified that the ECM produced by these cells over 7 days of culture contained collagen and fibronectin. HCFs were radiosensitive to 1 Gy of radiation, as the irradiated cells exhibited γ-H2AX foci. Intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), a known activator of latent TGF-β1, was increased in HCF immediately after radiation. In addition, irradiated HCF contained SMAD 2/3 in their nuclei and expressed α-smooth muscle actin, which are indicative of TGF-β1 activation. Measurement of total ECM protein and morphology demonstrated an increase in ECM protein production and an altered ECM structure from HCF exposed to 1 Gy radiation compared to sham control. In conclusion, we demonstrate that ionizing radiation induces structural and molecular changes in cardiovascular ECM. Our data vi further indicates that γ-irradiation activates TGF-β1 downstream signaling cascades, which may be a primary contributor of ECM remodeling in vascular tissue. Future studies relating ECM remodeling and cardiovascular cell function may help improve our understanding of cardiovascular risks from radiation exposure

Calculating or cavalier? Boris Johnson's latest reshuffle

Nicholas Allen discusses Boris Johnson’s first major reshuffle and explains why it has resulted in a relatively high degree of continuity within cabinet. Nevertheless, the ‘constructive dismissal’ of Sajid Javid could have long-term repercussions: while in the short term Javid is unlikely to pose a threat from the backbenches, this may well change once Johnson is no longer associated with electoral succes

Voluntary Environmental Agreements when Regulatory Capacity Is Weak

Voluntary agreements (VAs) negotiated between environmental regulators and industry are increasingly popular. However, little is known about whether they are likely to be effective in developing and transition countries, where local and federal environmental regulatory capacity is typically weak. We develop a dynamic theoretical model to examine the effect of VAs on investment in regulatory infrastructure and pollution abatement in such countries. We find that under certain conditions, VAs can improve welfare by generating more private-sector investment in pollution control and more public-sector investment in regulatory capacity than the status quo.voluntary environmental regulation, developing country

Ecological Momentary Assessment of Daily Discrimination Experiences and Nicotine, Alcohol, and Drug Use Among Sexual and Gender Minority Individuals

Objective: Sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals experience elevated rates of minority stress, which has been linked to higher rates of nicotine and substance use. Research on this disparity to date is largely predicated on methodology that is insensitive to within day SGM-based discrimination experiences, or their relation to momentary nicotine and substance use risk. We address this knowledge gap in the current study using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Method: Fifty SGM individuals, between 18 and 45 years of age, were recruited from an inland northwestern university, regardless of their nicotine or substance use history, and invited to participate in an EMA study. Each were prompted to provide data, six times daily (between 10:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.) for 14 days, regarding SGM-based discrimination, other forms of mistreatment, and nicotine, drug, and alcohol use since their last prompt. Results: Discrimination experiences that occurred since individuals’ last measurement prompt were associated with greater odds of nicotine and substance use during the same measurement window. Substance use was also more likely to occur in relation to discrimination reported two measurements prior in lagged models. Relative to other forms of mistreatment, discrimination effects were consistently larger in magnitude and became stronger throughout the day/evening. Conclusion: This study adds to existing minority stress research by highlighting the both immediate and delayed correlates of daily SGM-based discrimination experiences. These results also contribute to our understanding of daily stress processes and provide insight into ways we might mitigate these effects using real-time monitoring and intervention technology